TWC outage casts shadow on deal

Time Warner Cable experienced a widespread Internet outage Wednesday morning, a disruption that comes at a bad time for the company and its potential acquirer, Comcast, as they make the case to regulators for their $45 billion merger.

The problem, first discovered around 4:30 a.m., affected Internet service and On Demand television access across all of Time Warner Cable’s markets, according to a spokesman.

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“During our routine network maintenance, an issue with our Internet backbone created disruption with our Internet and On Demand services,” spokesman Bobby Amirshahi said in a statement. “As of 6 a.m. ET, services were largely restored as updates continue to bring all customers back online.”

Comcast and Time Warner Cable, the nation’s No. 1 and No. 2 cable companies, respectively, announced their merger plans in February and said joining forces would allow them to bring better technology and services to customers. The Federal Communications Commission and Justice Department both have to approve the deal.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday the outage apparently affected more than 11 million customers and called it “a stark reminder that our economy is increasingly dependent on a reliable broadband network.” He directed the state’s Department of Public Service to investigate the disruption as part of its own review of the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal. Time Warner Cable is headquartered in New York.

Cable companies are often the butt of jokes about reliability. Comcast and Time Warner Cable, in particular, are the least-liked cable firms in the country, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index released in May.

Comcast has also had its own customer service issues lately. A recording of a Comcast customer service representative trying to block a person from canceling his service went viral in July, prompting a Comcast apology.

The FCC announced Tuesday that Time Warner Cable will pay a $1.1 million penalty to resolve previous allegations that the firm failed to comply with agency requirements for reporting outages.

Time Warner Cable has also ruffled feathers in Los Angeles, where it owns SportsNet LA, the channel that carries the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball games. The company has yet to strike a deal with other pay-TV providers to make the channel available to their customers, meaning many viewers in the area have been unable to watch Dodgers games.

On Monday, the FCC closed its first public comment deadline in the merger review, with both the cable companies and their detractors weighing in with responses.